Commute Champion

When Cole DeForest went off to college, he didn’t bring a car with him. So he used his feet or a bicycle to get to class. That was 13 years ago. In the time since, he hasn’t stopped commuting that way.

Now an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Washington, he continues to commute by biking or running – rain or shine, dark or light. “I just kind of fell in love with it,” DeForest says. His devotion to his active commute is why we’ve named him our newest UW Transportation Services Commute Champion.

The Commute Champion program honors UW faculty, students and staff who model smart commuting, using transportation options that are good for their health, their community and the environment. DeForest was nominated for the honor by a recently retired fiscal specialist in his department, Karen Yoneda, who said he exemplifies smart commuting.

Transportation Services honored DeForest this week with a bagels-and-coffee party for him and his Chemical Engineering colleagues. In appreciation for his commute habits, he received a TS travel mug and some bike gear.

“It forces exercise into my daily routine,” DeForest says of his biking and running commute. “I think it really frees my mind before I take care of everything I have to do at work, and it helps me de-stress on the way home.”

He’s also happy, he says, that he can take the money he would spend on driving and parking every day and use it for something else. And when he has his bike, it’s quick and easy to zip across campus for a meeting.

He began biking along the Burke-Gilman Trail to campus every day when he started working at the UW in January 2014, even though the short winter days meant he was riding in the dark. When spring came around and he finally saw the trail in the daylight, he appreciated it even more. Since then, he has begun mixing running into his commute routine, as well.

His situation changed this year after his daughter, now 5 months old, was born. But he still keeps his commute as active as he can. For now, he drives her to daycare on his way to work, then bikes or runs the rest of the way. He eagerly awaits the day when she’ll be old enough to safely ride along with him while he bikes.

Compared with other places he’s lived, DeForest says, Seattle offers terrific commute options. The transit system is extensive (with Link light rail coming soon to the UW campus) and integrated with apps such as OneBusAway, while bike lanes, greenways and trails offer good bike routes. “The Burke-Gilman is really a blessing to a lot of folks around here,” he says. He offers some advice for UW commuters, too:

• Ask your colleagues how they commute and how they like it. You could learn a lot.
• Don’t be afraid to be creative and mix up transportation modes. Maybe you can’t bike all the way to campus, but you could pedal to a bus stop and take your bike on the bus.
• When walking or biking in the dark, make yourself well-lit and reflective.
• If you live the right distance from campus, and you like to run, you can mix your running into your commute. Invest in a close-fitting running backpack, or just travel light – if your work is done mostly on a computer and perhaps saved in the cloud, there might be little you really need to carry with you.

Do you have a friend or colleague who studies or works at the UW and models smart commute choices? Nominate her or him to be a Commute Champion with our online form. If you’re a commuting expert, you can apply for our Commute Ambassadors program. As a Commute Ambassador, you would help your colleagues and classmates find good commutes by showing them the ropes. You can apply for one of 30 Ambassador opportunities online.